Shiny new FAQ, Round... N.

So you may have noticed the little "Getting Started" blocks at the top right of some of our forums.

You may have also noticed that the one for General Programming is conspicuously empty and/or just plain missing.

I'd like to correct this by starting (again) to collect some of the better resources and articles and such that we have for things that are commonly discussed here in GP. While I do spent an inordinate amount of time lurking in this forum, I probably don't have a good enough memory to put together a comprehensive list by myself.

So I want to enlist the GameDev.Net masses to help accumulate links, FAQs, and other info that you think would be good to have in the Getting Started box.

I'm trying an experiment with the Getting Started bar. I want to post some of the common FAQ stuff as journal entries, so that people can comment back and keep discussion flowing. Instead of the FAQ being read-only material, I'd really like to see more participation from the forum regulars and even turn it into a collaborative effort instead of just something I manually curate (since I obviously suck at it!).

So check out the stuff that gets added there every now and then, and post your thoughts. Let's all make this an even more kick-ass forum.

This is how I started programming. I suggest not only watching it but also doing the coding on the side and taking notes for each video! As this makes you apply the concepts as the instructor is explaining it and make you learn the programming super quick! Every video gives you plenty of ground to work on. You can also apply this to any programming language you want to learn.

Programming Methodology- Standford course to introduction to programming in Java. Focuses on good software engineering and coding style and does an awesome job explaining programming concepts very easily thus eliminating any jargon that a book would do. Please note: this course does not introduce the main method until somewhere in part 26-28. They also use a different library called acm. But I can assure you in definitely makes programming more approach and manageable for the beginner.

Stackoverflow.com is another good site to get quicker help provided the user shows the work that they are stuck in.